There are so many different tools available for advertising and marketing which makes the quest to find the best tools even harder. When it comes to finding the best marketing platforms for small business, time is money. Finding tools that fit budgets and advertising needs can be challenging for small business owners with little time on their hands.
In this review, I have featured the best apps for your startup business.
GoCo
For many small businesses, HR can be a mysterious thing. It’s complex, tricky to navigate, and often filled with paperwork. If you’re in a startup environment, it can be difficult to dedicate the headspace (and personnel) that are necessary to do a great job. The good news is that there are all-in-one platforms to help you meet your company’s needs.
GoCo.io is a platform that moves human resources and benefits to the cloud, streamlining employee onboarding and offboarding, time-tracking, performance management, benefits administration, document management, and compliance. It also works with some of the payroll and management software and productivity apps – we’ll get into later in this article, giving you the HR capabilities you need without all the paperwork.
Goodhire
When it comes to growing your startup, one of the biggest pieces of advice you’ll get over and over again is to hire the right people. The problem is that there’s a lot that can go into that process: from reference and employment checks to pre-hire skill tests, there’s a lot that you probably want to know about someone before you decide to bring them onto your team. GoodHire helps you figure it all out with just a few clicks on your device, and gets everything back to you in less than 24 hours.
Gusto
Formerly known as ZenPayroll, Gusto makes your small business’s tax, benefits, and payroll process easier than ever before. It helps take care of all of the onboarding paperwork and also handles all of the reporting you need to do when you make a new hire. It takes care of federal, state, and local tax filings; emails paystubs to your employees; and automatically makes deductions for benefits and workers’ comp.
Freshbooks
And while we’re on the topic of payments, depending on your business model, there can be a lot of paperwork between when you get the job done and when you actually get paid for it. Managing and tracking invoices can be a tall order, but fortunately, Freshbooks is here to help. You can effortlessly create simple and professional invoices, set up recurring invoices for your clients, and accept credit cards on your mobile device with this productivity app. It also features expense-tracking, business report generation, and profit and loss statements to help you stay on top of everything you need to keep your business running smoothly.
Intercom
The truth about customer service is that whenever and wherever your customers have a good experience, that experience becomes their new baseline expectation for how they’ll be treated elsewhere. Positive and surprisingly delightful communication with customers is increasingly becoming a differentiator for businesses.
Intercom uses a combination of education, live chat, and more to make it easier for your startup to engage and interact with your consumers. That way, you can focus on solving problems before they start and make sure that your business is converting customers into fans.
Upwork
Sometimes when you’re running your small business you’ll come across a situation where you need a certain set of skills your team simply doesn’t possess. Since it’s a one-off project, you don’t necessarily want to hire someone full-time and deal with all of the paperwork (although we’ve looked at some tools and apps that can help).
Instead, consider turning to Upwork to find an independent contractor who can help you get your project done without all of the messiness. Whether it’s graphic design, web development, or copywriting, you can find someone who will jump in and handle whatever project you throw their way with aplomb. The review, bidding, and reference system help you make sure that you’re working with quality people, whatever the project may be.
SalesLoft
At the end of the day, your business depends on your ability to find and win more customers. SalesLoft can help, with software designed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your sales reps. It features email built for sales from the ground up, integrations with tools that you’re probably already using like Salesforce, and a sales dialer to keep the phones the ringing.
Pushover
If you need more than one device to run your business, Pushover is a gamechanger for keeping all your moving pieces connected and coordinated. It consolidates all of your push messages for all of your devices into one common space, letting you get a handle on everything that’s happening with your business at once.
RescueTime
Have you ever had a day that just got away from you? You keep on meaning to get to an important task, but first, you need to deal with all of this morning’s email, then with edits to a project you delivered yesterday, and before you know it, it’s time for lunch.
RescueTime can help you get a handle on where all your time is going by tracking where you spend it, sending you detailed reports and data to give you a full picture of how you spent your day. You can’t make progress on something until you start measuring it, so give it a try.
Trello
Having a team—even a small one—to lean on helps you get more done in the limited work hours of a given day, but it also means you have to spend a lot of time managing people and keeping projects and deadlines organized. If you’re spread out between emails, Slack, and tracking documents, it can be difficult to know where to go for the most accurate picture of what needs to get done when. Enter Trello, a team and task management platform that helps make keeping track of tasks as simple as possible. Centralize communications, structure projects, and get tasks checked off your to-do list like never before.
Accounting
With careful bookkeeping and good accounting software, you can access information about your business’s revenue, profit margins and overall financial health. It can also help you answer important questions, like, “How much can I afford to spend on marketing this month?”
QuickBooks Online
Cost: $25 and up (50% off for first three months).
Why we like it: Because QuickBooks is the industry leader for small-business accounting software, it’s easy to find an accountant or bookkeeper who will support it. Its multiple tiers of service can easily scale with your company, too. QuickBooks Online, the cloud-based version, can also be accessed anywhere. Read the full review.
Xero
Cost: $12 and up per month.
Why we like it: Xero is easy to use, rich with features and also widely supported by bookkeepers and accountants. Unlike some competitors, it doesn’t place any limit on the number of users you can add. Read the full review.
FreshBooks
Cost: $4.50 per month and up (billed annually).
Why we like it: With FreshBooks’ mobile app, you can complete basic accounting functions and send messages to clients to remind them about invoices or late payments. It’s a helpful feature for entrepreneurs on the go. Read the full review.
Wave
Cost: Free (Wave makes money through payment processing).
Why we like it: Unlike its competitors, Wave’s accounting software is completely free. With it, you can add unlimited users and unlimited bank and credit card connections. It’s also possible to run multiple businesses from the same account. Read the full review.
Zoho Books
Cost: $10 per month and up (with discounts for annual billing).
Why we like it: Zoho Books offers plenty of useful features at an affordable price. It also gives you the option to set up automated workflows, for example, if you want to send email notifications to yourself when a bill the business receives exceeds a certain amount. Read the full review.
Point-of-sale
Point-of-sale software allows you to ring up customers and complete sales and can be customized to fit your business needs. Restaurants, for example, need POS systems that allow for table management and coordination. Retail shops, meanwhile, require robust inventory management features.
Square
Software cost: Free and up. (Additional hardware and payment processing are additional costs.)
Why we like it: Square features transparent pricing, live support and easy-to-use flows. It’s also mobile-friendly and works on iPhones, iPads and Androids. For small businesses that don’t need advanced functionality, there’s also a free plan. Read the full review.
Toast
Software cost: Free and up. (Additional hardware and payment processing are additional costs.)
Why we like it: Toast’s restaurant-specific design prioritizes features that make the back-of-house and front-of-house operate smoothly. You can manage menus and tables easily, get useful reporting and analytics and accept orders from multiple platforms. Read the full review.
Lightspeed
Software cost: $69 per month (billed annually) and up. (Hardware and payment processing are additional costs.)
Why we like it: Lightspeed’s inventory management system sets it apart from the competition. That makes it an ideal choice for large businesses with complicated inventory management needs — for example, businesses with inventory in multiple locations, with various discount rules or tax classes. Read the full review.
Shopify
Software cost: $29 per month and up. (Hardware and payment processing are additional costs.)
Why we like it: Shopify makes it possible to almost instantly set up and run an e-commerce store. It also offers helpful features, such as a way to email shoppers who abandon their virtual shopping carts. It also offers software and hardware for accepting payments in store.
Conclusion
Chances are that as a startup, you’re tight on cash. And that means you need an app that will help you save some funds. With the plethora of business apps out there, it’s difficult to choose which ones to use for your company. For those looking to save money on a start-up, the apps listed above are a great place to start.